"I compared my average day to Marie Kondo's. It was... eye-opening."

Aim: Millennial writer with mediocre hair and very disorganised life compares her day to that of owner of lovely hair and author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo. 

Hypothesis: Not an amazing idea. Marie Kondo to exit looking like a goddess, making it perfectly clear why she has sold four million books and this millennial writer has not.

How do you start the day?

Marie Kondo: “I wake up naturally around 6 or 6:30 a.m. I rarely use an alarm clock. After waking up, I open all of the windows, let the breeze in, and then burn incense.

“… Then I’ll pray for the health of my family and friends, and also for myself to get done as much as possible what needs to be done. This is not a religious thing really at all. It’s just for me to take this time every morning to feel gratitude.”

Michelle Andrews: “I really enjoy snoozing my alarm three, maybe four times before I reach my final alarm labelled ‘YOU’LL BE LATE FOR WORK’. That’s how I know I have 17 minutes to be on my tram. At this point, the prospects of washing my hair, going to the gym, eating breakfast, looking like a human have all sailed by, so I give my Batiste Dry Shampoo a real workout instead. I feel a lot of gratitude for Batiste.

“Every morning at precisely 7:48am I take a light jog around my apartment in search for my keys.

“My makeup will be done on the tram because in my 20s I’ve already reached a level of shamelessness I never thought possible.”

The Parent Code team discuss the underrated magic of having a morning routine. Post continues.

How do you get organised?

Marie Kondo: “When my husband and I got married, we sat down and talked about the kind of home life we wanted and what it would take to achieve that. We put all of this on a shared Google spreadsheet. When one of us completed a task we’d mark it as done and then the other one might leave a message saying ‘Thank you,’ or something like that. It was all very systematic.

“… And from this we developed a natural division of labor and now we have a good rhythm in place. We still use an online calendar to coordinate our schedules.”

Michelle Andrews: “Mid last year, my boyfriend put a magnetic whiteboard on our fridge to share memos and our schedules easily and efficiently. I like to walk past it everyday and read what I had on my plate in the first week of July, 2017.

“Our towel rack has been broken for about six months, so we’ve been drying our towels on the dining table chairs instead. Pretty sure we’ve lost the screws for the towel rack in the meantime, so this is just what our life looks like now.”

How do you stay on track at work?

Marie Kondo: “I’m always drinking tea while I work, so I’ll have my favourite mug, a coaster, a small flower vase and maybe some aroma spray on the edge of my desk, too. For work, I like a scent with a mint or a grapefruit base. So I’ll spray some of that and then get started writing down the day’s tasks on a notepad.”

Michelle Andrews: “I too always ensure to have a scent in my desk drawer. My preference is one with a ‘Rexona, for women’ base.”

How do you manage tasks?

Marie Kondo: "I make a very detailed to-do list: finish that article, reply to this email, do the laundry, and so on... I do one thing at a time and then move on to the next thing."

Michelle Andrews: "My personal inbox currently has 2705 unread emails. If my mind was to be described anecdotally it would be, 'an old laptop with thousands of unnecessary tabs open that has the spinning wheel of death freezing everything for all eternity.'"

How do you reset at the end of the day?

Marie Kondo: "Before I go to bed, I’ll go around the house and change the water in the flower vases. I have flowers all over the place... anything that is left out goes back into its proper place. As I’m tidying, I’ll give each item a heartfelt 'Thank you' for helping with the day."

Michelle Andrews: "Same. Ha ha ha ha ha. Of course not, silly. I have a penchant for killing living things in my direct orbit, so every single plant in my apartment is plastic and from Kmart.

"At the end of a long reality TV binge, I tend to brush any crumbs on the couch onto the rug beneath because keeping things tidy is important for my state of mind."

Click the link to read Marie Kondo's full interview about her daily routine with The Cut. 

You can follow Michelle on Facebook and Instagram. Alternatively, you'll find her at a local train station exclaiming, "Ohhhh... I drove to work today."